Finally, a Castle Crashers date!! But wait, August 27?! Dammit, that's the day school starts back up. Fuck!

BlackMage66652

XBLA overload to make up for the lack of anything worthwhile?

Hmmm, I'll take it, but I would like 2 weeks in between each of these releases to really enjoy the games.

Rubix42

"Skill testing required for Canadian residents."

That's just prejudice.

opt2not

But there are full games over XBLA too. Puzzle Quest, Penny Arcade, PoP, Tomb Raider.

I just think, live arcade, as the name indicates doesn't apply to the same market as retails next-gen games i you look at sales there are plenty of guys in need f a quick arcade fix and girls happy with the selection of cheap puzzle games. I mean it's not if I wouldn't like to see more retail game coming to us via episodic content but I've spent a lot more time on Pinball Fx or Geo wars that I did with Lost Odyssey or Mass Effect simply because I can play a quick game anytime.

Fabrice

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Your observation that the games are designed to offer less functionality than actual retail-boxed products is 110% correct, and it's by design... it's also reflected in the cost.

One game that you might want to look at that goes against this observation is Penny Arcade: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness. For the most part, I agree with your thoughts on this, except for the fact that I really don't mind some of these games.

One of my largest complaints about games in general in the latest gen is the length. They're too long. Does that seem to be a funny thing to complain about to some? Of course. "Mr. Omnimon, you're getting more content for your $ and you're complaining. Well, yes, actually. I no longer get to play some very intriguing games anymore because an RPG takes 30-100 hours to complete, or because Puzzle Quest took too long (I have no idea HOW long), or because I got sucked into Halo 3 multi for 4 months, etc.

I understand the Halo example is 'my fault', and I'll accept that I made a choice not to play other games because it had eaten my soul.

In the end, I enjoy completing games. I like the whole story, and I like the sense of accomplishment when I have reached the end. There's a feeling of guilt (and I'm looking at you, Wind Waker) when a game isn't finished and is left in it case to mock me from afar as I've moved on to another, arguably less-deserving game.

My hopes are that more and more companies will realize that as the 'kids' that grew up with video games are getting older, the market is becoming more diverse, and with that, it might not be the best idea to push out 50 hour gameplay games.

Until then, I'll keep buying titles to expand my backlog, whilst fitting in an episodic game here and there.

Omnimon

Go Go Break Steady owns my arcade gaming time for now and quite a while.

I'll pick up these games whenever my love affair with GGBS has ended.

It won't be soon.

karasu is my homeboy

Can't wait for Braid and Bionic Commando Rearmed. Although I hope the latter doesn't cannabilize the former.

Zerozaki Ishiki

if I win 100,000 MS points I'll use them all to buy Castle Crashers over and over again.

robotleawesome

God, I just want to go and dance around in a valley of gumdrops.

PsycheE

Nice that actually is a pretty good lineup. The only XBLA game I bought so far is Penny Arcade but sounds like I will be getting at least 3 next month (might get Bionic Commando for PSN if the remote play works deecent though).

liquid_kore

@BigWeather: I don't mean longer, necessarily, my friend. I just mean games that feel like toys, instead of games that are designed to offer much of the functionality of actual retail-boxed titles. Like the recently announced episodic Ratchet for PSN, or Fat Princess. Or even SOCOM Confrontation. They just seem a bit deeper than what Microsoft are going for anymore.

And to be honest, I'm not really into the 'indie' XBLA bent. I've been following Braid and its ilk for some time, and I find the gilded language we apply to them to be one step below outright hilarity.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

@randomletters:

Apparently the contest is for playing trial or full versions, so you don't specifically have to seek out the trial version if you're going to buy the full one anyway.

Franklin Comes Alive!

whoops I mean 6 GAME MODES.

CHECK IT OUT:
[www.bizarrecreations.com]

nerdBOY01

how many microsoft points would it take to buy all rock band and arcade titles? does this only apply to the US (as usual ¬_¬ )

Finstern

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!:

Ticket to Ride and Braid would like a word with you. =) The "longer" games are out there and also coming... It just goes in cycles.

I'm looking forward to Flock and Lode Runner post-this good stuff.

BigWeather

About time. I *hate* the summer gaming drought.

ShaggE

@XbhaskarX: OH COMMON, GW RE2 will have a steep learning curve in some modes (5 MODES IN ALL) just like its predicessor but once you've aquired the skills and knowledge it is EASILY one of the funnest games on XBOX 360 period. My top score is 3,812,000 (GW RE1).

nerdBOY01

Will the Summer of Arcade sweepstakes be available to Europe too?

Gentleman

If anything, Geometry Wars 2 is the game I'm least hyped for from that list. I'd say Castle Crashers and Bionic Commando Rearmed are at the top by far. Braid and Galaga Legions also look interesting. GW2 looks like more of the same.

XbhaskarX

@XbhaskarX: PEGGLE is awesome! with super graphical cheesiness, I love the rainbow sugar coated goodness.

nerdBOY01

I haven't really played my 360 in a while. I have been rather busy and my PS3 (and sometimes PC) has been dominating most of my free gaming time.

But Geometry Wars 2 and Castle Crashers? I just might have to do some rescheduling. Im getting Bionic Commando on PSN, but thats besides the point.

Just take my money already, damnit

dantemustdie

Also, Things on Wheels, Peggle, and Age of Booty are scheduled to come out sometime this summer. And possibly even Lode Runner.

It's almost too much goodness.

XbhaskarX

AWAITING Xbox 360 repairs

Geometry Wars RE2 is going to trip my balls off and implode my mind! :D

nerdBOY01

August 27th?! God damn thats too long...Ugh the waiting...

CCCombobreaker

This is awesome news. Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Castle Crashers in the same month!

insaneo

@NYLatenite: i dont think you can buy that one seperatly yet though, it may be just for people that preorder for now

kommanderk

I still don't care about Galga, but I'm interested in everything else. Especially Bionic Commando, which I bought 5,000 MS Points for in April, awaiting it's release.

I probably won't be buying Geo. Wars 2 anymore, since it has no online play, and not sure if Braid will be a buy or not, but Bionic Commando and Castle Crashers will be purchased the second I see them on the Marketplace.

LegendK1ll3r

Wow. Pretty good lineup-- and most of the time, I'd be really pleased. Still looking forward to these, but I think (for my money, at least) the PSN offerings have now outgrown most of the XBLA stuff. While Crashers is going to be a lot of fun-- Hominid always was-- Geometry Wars 2 just looks like a somewhat repetitive multiplayer expansion pack for the original (which I loved, and continue to play, but I just don't feel like the sequel appears to be adding that much). Galaga looks cool, but I lack McWhertor's world-beating skill for the game (sadly).

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Microsoft just want mini game experiences, rather than complete, fully formed titles, for XBLA now. And I don't think that has anything to do with SIZE, necessarily-- it just seems like a common design thread. It seems like Microsoft and Sony have come to a parting of the ways where it concerns downloadable titles. And I'm a bit more impressed by where Sony want to take it.

But that said, my favorite downloadable title of this generation has been Carcassonne.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

Money will be spent.

I wonder what the second game will be each week. Feeding Frenzy 2 and the Fable 2 pub games are also coming, but it would be awesome if Vigilante 8 Arcade also came out during this period.

XbhaskarX

Yay! Castle Crashers!

The Competition part is pretty cool too. Looks like I'll be playing the trial versions whether I'm intrested in the full version or not. Still can only be a good thing to experience new things.

randomletters

LaPetomaine Thruway? What will that asshole think of next? Someone is gonna have to go back and get a shitload of dimes.

Well, that or a shitload of Microsoft points - awesome lineup!

I'm guessing the Fable 2 games scheduled for the August 13th are still coming but not part of the contest.

NYLatenite

Wait..Castle Crushers coming out this summer? That's GREAT NEWS!@!!

exkon

I can't wait for Geometry Wars 2, Braid, and Castle Crashers. This is going to be a great month to stand out of an otherwise lackluster year so far.

DynoMite

Really looking forward to Castle Crashers, arcade beat-em-ups are my favorite sub-genre hands down and I've been itching for a new one for quite a while...

art_zombie

It's a shame that the game I'm looking forward to most on that list is coming out last. Ah well, all of those games look great and getting them all in just over a month is impressive.

Stormrider

@Omnimon: You're completely correct. And far be it from me to say I don't appreciate the types of titles XBLA is strong at providing, because I enjoy quite a few of them. I agree with you that a lot of full-price retail boxed games are too much-- too long for me to enjoy from start to finish, and with a price commensurate to the experience. And I think that's part of why I'm becoming more and more enamoured of PSN's current approach-- the idea of retail-quality titles that offer me a handful of hours of polished gameplay (a la Ratchet, for example) at a price that is significantly lower than the boxed game that gives me too much to do... that's just more appealing to me than a lot of what's going on with XBLA. I really enjoy a lot of XBLA titles, but it feels like they're mostly examples of finding one gameplay element and nailing it. And then nailing it over and over and over again-- so it's always a good, short burst of fun whenever you want to start it up, but it's not a very detailed, deep experience. Again, that's just me.

And you're right, the Penny Arcade game looked great. I played the demo, didn't get around to picking up the full game. I really ought to...

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

That's a crazy amount of good titles, I'm afraid that I'll have to pick and choose.
I hope Kotaku will cover Braid, all the stuff 1up has done made it look really interesting, and somewhat novel for XBLA.

Zeouterlimits

GW2 and Galaga for me.

StupidDufus

@Altersparck: GW1 was the first, I mean. :P

Altersparck

The XBLA has better games than every next gen system out. That's both sad and awesome.

KirbyMorph

@vanishing.hero: Is V8 for XBLA gonna be significantly different from the V8 games on the PSone?

I can't wait for GW2! It was the first game I ever bought for the 360 and it still sees a lot of play to this day.

Altersparck

still waiting for vigilante 8 arcade.

vanishing.hero

Woo hoo! Castle Crushers!

justinbox360

I wonder if we will get a free game this summer like last year's Aegis Wing. That was a fun little game, especially for the price.
Much better than Undertow at the same price point.

Numerous

Castle crashers - at last!!! Yay!!!

Connobi

Anyone who plays even a trial version of these new titles is automatically entered to win one of five weekly 4,000 MS point prizes?

Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (includes D.C.), Canada, France, Germany, or U.K.

Us twelve people living elsewhere can't help but feel a bit meh again :)

EldonTLH

Where is my LODE RUNNER?

Scrapple

I can't even imagine spending 100k points. That would be 125 games @ 800 points apiece. Or a WHOLE lot of DLC for other stuff. Crazy. They'd be better off giving away 10 10k prizes or something.

I actually won 6 months of Live from one of these, so it can be done.....

And Galaga and GeoWars 2 are must buys for me! Looking forward to it.

lionkitten

So many goodies coming!

Wolfers

The Behemoth rule. There's nothing else to say. Go check out Dad 'n Me on New Grounds. It features the art of Dan Palladin himself - and it's free!

I can't wait for Castle Crashers (not that I won't be buying Bionic Commando and GW2)

Anarchist_Gamer

GW2 and Castle Crashers!

SOLD

Kum0

Castle Crashers arrives at long last. I was settling in for the long haul. Didn't even expect it to come out this year. This is great news! Huzzah!

GW2 is also an immediate purchase

ForAllThatEverWas

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Fat Princess doesn't seem like a toy? As far as I can tell, it's intended to be the same sort of arcade-y multiplayer game as Castle Crashers. Personally, I'd rather take the XBLA model of games that are fun and cheap over say, Flower, which looks amazing but if it's anything like its predecessor will be hardly a game at all.

Stormrider

I love when the prizes for these things is an Xbox console. Like you didn't already have one to enter in the first place.

FoxHoundADAM

There's a reason for me to check out all of these games... I hope the trial versions aren't all so great that I'm "forced" to buy all of them.

Ninegauger

I think I'm done holding my breath for Nukem 3D on XBLA :(

B-Minus

Does anybody have a problem playing Geometry Wars? I'm fairly good at most shooters,but I just can't do anything on GW2.I almost feel like it's the sticks on the controller,but that's probably a cop out.

enewtabie

Such an awesome lineup, I can see myself buying all 5

Struct09

@Stormrider: Well, we're all different. And I certainly qualified my earlier statement as being merely my own take. But yes, I'd argue that for all we know about it Fat Princess seems to be a lot deeper than Castle Crashers. Not better, necessarily, but deeper-- and I'll wind up playing them both. One isn't bad because I prefer the other, but yes, I think Crashers is more like a toy. It's a cartoony hack-and-slash, where the other is a team-based variant of capture the flag with a cute motif. I don't mean toy as in 'cute'-- I meant toy as in, a slightly less comprehensive experience. That's just me. Cheers!

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

Wasn't Lode Runner supposed to be one of the titles to come out this summer as well?

Regardless, I can't believe that we still have to wait weeks for Bionic Commando and Castle Crashers, but at least they have definite dates now.

Sargus

@enewtabie: I'm like that too, don't worry =].

It seems like a pretty kick-ass line-up, can't wait for Castle Crashers! and Galaga Leigions, and Fat Princess and GW2 and Bionic Commando >.<

infestedDemon

RAAAAAAGGGGHH!!!!!!! CC's coming out the day AFTER i go back to college! DAMNIT GAD FUK! @#$!

King Seafoam

Shit. MS just decided to release every XBLA game I want in the space of one month. Bye bye points.

OTOH, this seems dumb from a marketing perspective. Yes, it whips us all into a frenzy about XBLA (you didn't forget about it, did you?), but I know I, for one, will have to pass up some things I would have otherwise bought were they more spaced out.

catapult37

Jonathan Blow: Young genius, pretentious twat, or both? In two weeks---we find out!

ThatFuzzyBastard

Thank God for a Castle Crashers release date. I've been waiting to hear some type of news about a release date.

NightMystic

I let my friend play the original Geometry Wars while he was high. After that, he still won't touch the game, even if he's clean.

Oggy

If you watch the vid, the interface seems very fast. I hope this is what the actual update will be like.

sniper13x

FINALLY! I've been waiting for Braid since GameInformer did a preview on it a few months back.

FLYmeatwad

Braid is a day one download. Ever since it was on the 1Up Show I've wanted to get my grubby mitts on it. Can't wait.

Crazyreyn

:|

I'm gonna need to get like a billion more points. Dammit. Lol.

kojirodensetsu

By the might of Azeroth! Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Castle Crashers in the same month?

This is indeed a summer to prosper.

KilOMisFit

Wow, not bad at all.

Geometry Wars and Castle Crashers should be some co-op goodness.

Also, BIONIC COMMANDO! If only you had Live co-op....either way, this is probably the second best NES remake I could hope for on XBLA. The best? River City Ransom.

GorbyGipper

1942 was peretty good last week...that signifies the start of this "season of games" for me
But I havent finished it yet - and now the Geo2, and thebionic commando...and then galaga...crap. I am screwed.

Rockzilla

Where is my Duke Nukem 3D DAMNIT!?!??!?

ihateeverything

Lol, smart, make everyone try out the good games XBLA has to offer thus more potential buys.

Ultrasinc

Why oh why do they squeeze in all the good titles at once? Definitely going to lose out on some sales there because of either lack of $ or lack of time :(

kftgr

What an awesome line-up, I am buying every game but Galaga (GW2 will give me my shooter fix). This truly is the best XBLA line-up ever hands down.

WPack911

Every. Game. Will. Be. Bought.

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

The only game I'm not getting right away is Braid, and even that one looks fantastic. Can't wait for Bionic Commando Rearmed!

eastx